Events

Summer Collegiate Team Rankings

Allan Simpson7/16/2012

New
England Collegiate League ShowdownIn
Works: No. 1 Newport vs No. 2 KeeneThe
Newport Gulls will be playing the Keene Swamp Bats tonight in a key
New England Collegiate League game with more than just league
bragging rights at stake.Both
teams have identical 22-6 records and lead their respective divisions
by wide margins, but a showdown of the NECBL’s two best clubs will
have rare national implications at stake as Newport and Keene moved
into the Nos. 1 and 2 positions today in Perfect Game’s weekly
ranking of the nation’s top 30 summer-league teams.That’s
rare territory for any summer-college league not known as the Cape
Cod League, but the Gulls and Swamp Bats, historically the NECBL’s
most-successful franchises, have been as hot recently as almost any
teams in the country with 13 wins apiece in their last 15 games.
Keene recently had a 10-game winning streak snapped.The
Cape League’s Harwich Mariners had occupied the No. 1 spot in PG’s
weekly rankings since the outset of the 2012 season, but are in the
throes of a four-game losing streak that has knocked the team down to
No. 4.Though
slumping Harwich, at 16-10 overall, still boasts the best record in
the Cape Cod League, that standing is very much in jeopardy as the
Mariners have their own showdown encounter tonight when they face the
hard-charging and new No. 5-ranked Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, one of
four teams in the Cape with identical 15-11 records. The Red Sox have
been the hottest team in the Cape recently.As
appealing as the Harwich/Yarmouth-Dennis confrontation promises to
be, it may not be as intriguing as the one between Newport and Keene,
played about 100 miles away in Keene, N.H.Newport
and Keene have dominated the NECBL to date, with both clubs running
1-2 in the league in team batting average and team ERA. Newport has
been slightly the more dominant of the two with an aggregate run
differential margin of 244-123, vs. Keene’s ratio of 196-126, and
earned the No. 1 national ranking mainly on that basis. Newport, No.
5 a week ago, leads the NECBL with a .316 team batting average, while
Keene, No. 3 a week ago, is tops with a 3.51 ERA.Teams
are ranked on the following criteria: won-loss record, league
dominance, depth and quality of professional-level talent and the
overall strength of the league. To receive consideration, teams must
have at least a .500 record overall.

Rank

Team

St

League

Record

1

Newport Gulls

RI

New England Collegiate League

22-6

NECBL's best hitting team getting productive summers from Rutgers C Jeff Melillo (.400-3-22), Washington State OF Yale Rosen (.367-10-31), Arizona State OF Kasey Coffman (.348-5-26); Gulls batting .316 with 39 HRs as a team

Power-hitting trio of Samford OF Phil Ervin (.337-8-19), Notre Dame 3B/OF Eric Jagielo (.298-7-15) and Stanford OF Austin Wilson (.294-6-19) all struggling to maintain hot early-season pace, but rank among top five in Cape in home runs

MoonDogs have dropped three in a row, but still boast best record in Northwoods; Parkland (Ill.) JC LHP Zack Hall (4-1, 3.02) has been team's top starter, Oklahoma City RHP Patrick Goelz (0-1, 3.94) has saved league-best 13 games

Washington OF Michael Camporeale (.333-7-30) leads CPL in RBIs, slugging (.614), one of three Steamers to share league lead in homers; Norfolk State RHP Jordan Egan (2-1, 1.19, league-high 14 SV) a stalwart in bullpen